Now for me, this is another brilliant film where finally fully seeing it for the first time has been LONG overdue. Now I've seen clips of this film that I've remembered for years wanting to finally fully see. And I wanted to see it more when I learned more about Hoffman's character. So as of tonight, I finally settled the score once at for all in finally watching the Best Picture of 1988, Rain Man.
Plot: Charlie Babbitt is a car dealer whose father that he has avoided throughout his life has recently died. In his father's will, Charlie is left with his father's car and his prized roses but the three million dollars his father had is inherited to a trustee on behalf of an unnamed beneficiary. He later learns that the money is going to a mental institute where he learns that he has an autistic brother there named Raymond that he has never even heard of. Charlie, starts a custody battle against Raymond's doctor in order to at least get half of the money. Which leads Charlie and Raymond to go on a trip to L.A. in order to settle the matter in court.
This was a beautifully done movie. I mean what I especially love is how Raymond really relates to some of the things autistic people will do and what abilities they have. I mean it's not always the case, but it really works in giving us a generalized idea of what Autism can be like. And the story turned out to be way more interesting then I thought it would be when we learn a little more about Charlie and Raymond's family prior to the events of the film.
Acting/Characters:
Dustin Hoffman/Raymond: The best actor award he got for this film? Yeah, he totally had it coming. If you are an autistic or someone who knows very well about autism, you can tell that Hoffman did a lot of research at what autistic people are like. And his character Raymond was brilliantly done showing us the symptoms and skills Autistics can have. Lot's of daydreaming, can be really sensitive, like to keep things in a certain routine, not being aware of what's happening around them, having excellent memory, can be really good with math, saying things or wanting to do things for reason that only make sense to them, the list goes on and on. There's a lot of way where real autistic people differ from Raymond whether they're high-functioning, low-functioning or have a form of autism like Asperger's, but when it comes to giving the world a good, general idea about autism, Hoffman as Raymond did his job extremely well.
Tom Cruise/Charlie: I think this is the first time where I can really enjoy Tom Cruise as an actor. I mean yes, I've seen other movies where I liked him or roughly liked him like in Mission Impossible III, Tropic Thunder, and...maybe Far and Away? (I don't know, that's undecided because it's been a long time for me with that movie.) But from just a drama film, I found a way to appreciate him a little more as an actor. So now I sort of have something to like about him...other than sometimes making fun of him with the fairly well-known "Trapped in the Closet" episode of South Park.
Music: Surprisingly, I ended up paying a little more attention then I probably normally do when it comes to watching movies I've never seen before. The score gave a nice smooth sort of music that was kinda weird considering I didn't expect that kind of music to be in this film, but turned out to be interesting, especially when I learned that the music was done by Hans Zimmer.
Editing: I really enjoyed the editing. Because to top it all off with Hoffman's performance, you occasionally get these cuts of random things that Raymond is looking at like a bridge or seeing the same program at the same time with the TV and his small TV or looking at the rail as he's riding a car and stuff like that. Autistics do like to look at stuff like that from when they're in the car and all that, and I liked how they put that in.
And that's my review for Rain Man. It's spectacular film that must be remembered for a very long time for how it give us a brilliant, generalize idea about the life of being a person with Autism.
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